Something For Nothing By: Luvmoni Biswa

Human wants are unlimited but the resources available are limited. People always want more and more everyday no matter what is going on in the world. Everywhere in the world,life is very different. I am a refugee boy and things have always been very difficult throughout my life.

When I was back in the refugee camp in Nepal. The camps are made up of clusters of huts made out of bamboo, thatch, plastic, etc. All the huts are made in rows, having little or no gaps. Between the rows, small gaps are kept where doors of the huts are facing. The size of each hut is very small and hardly four or five people can live. Sometimes, seven to ten people are forced to accommodate which becomes very congested.

During the summer, nearly sixty percent of the rain leaks from the unsafe roofs of the huts soaking all the materials including bedding and foods. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) used to provide some limited food-stuff every fourteen days. Including kerosene oil and coal for cooking food. People cook food by themselves in each family and share it to others in their family. They do not have any choice of food.

Without the electricity in the camps, the nights are complete darkness. From the bedroom we could see the moon at night and feel the chili dewdrops early the next morning. People eat and go to bed early. The clean water is not enough, and people often have to fetch water from nearby streams. Stream water, which contained many kinds of bacteria was not purified or treated and killed some thousands of innocent Bhutanese.

The life in camps are really miserable and monotonous. They are out of reach from digital modernized world and anything going on outside. We have suffered a lot in silence and God became greedy to us in spite of our undeniable needs. On the other hand, the life in the United States is completely different than the life in the refugee camps in Nepal. The life is luxurious in warm and nice apartments. The apartments have everything, such as water, air conditioning, electricity, and a gas stove for cooking food. The rooms are big enough to live with lot of furniture. People have many choices for foods.

People in the United States can go anywhere as they wish. They have many kinds of media for the circulation of news like cell phone, radio, and TV. There is very strong security for the people to live.

I am very happy in the United States than in the refugee camps. The life is easier and safer in the United States than in the camps. I have never thought of coming to this country, USA even in my dream and spent life freely and luxuriously like today. So I am always very grateful to this country for bringing me in and giving a new life to a refugee boy who had no destination in life and had no hope to live. These are the great things this country has done me for nothing. THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD…USA!